A short film and discussion event around the themes of sleep paralysis and hypnogogic hallucination. The event looked at how these phenomena have been experienced and interpreted by artists and cultures across geography and time, while touching on the science behind the experience. The panel included Prof. Christopher French, Professor of Psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London’s Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit and Psychoanalyst David Morgan.

This event was presented in association with the Dana Centre as part of the London Short Film Festival. It launched The Sleep Paralysis Project, a short film and cross-platform research project supported by a Wellcome Trust Arts Award (www.thesleepparalysisproject.org).

A short film documenting hypnotically recovered memories of people abducted by space aliens. Based on their own drawings.

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Hypnogogia (Dir. Louise Wilde)

A personal documentation of the hallucinatory imagery related to the transition between sleeping and waking. The directors aim was to create and convey a lasting kinaesthetic and psychologial experience of this condition for the viewer, through the use of manipulated frame-by-frame visual imagery and sound design.

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Hum (Dir. Emily Howells & Anne Wilkins)

Bedtime rhythms and routines mark the hundreds of hours that drift past in a twilight haze. You’re caught in a monotonous cycle, until suddenly something heavy and strange approaches.

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Droom (Dir. iloobia)

An exploration into visualising the act of drifting from consciousness into hypnagogic sleep and into the dream space, where navigation is fragmented and abstracted within sensual spaces.